Sunday, November 6, 2016

So you want to sprout those ganja seeds you found in your stash?
First off I want you to be sure that your grow space will be warm enough for seed germination.
Most indoor grow rooms will not have an issue, but many will be too hot due to poor choices in air flow control.
You will want your soil between 60-80 with 65-70 being ideal. More heat or cold than that range and the plants may grow, but they will not thrive.

When you start your seeds many folks are tempted to use the expandable peat cups sold in garden centers across the land. I do not advise these cups at all. They have given me more trouble than they are worth.
Instead I recommend that you plant in a 6-10 inch pot. Get the soil properly moist before placing it in the pot to avoid dry spaces in the soil. Put the pot on a small tray to catch the water and to water into.
You will need a spray bottle filled with water to keep the top of the soil moist. Watering the plant as a seed or a sproutling directly is a bad plan. Your plant can be buried by floating soil, or if it is still a seed, washed out from the planters center to the edge of the pot and buried too deep to survive sprouting.

So after you have your pot filled with moist soil and on a catch tray, put a single seed in the center of the pot and push it into the soil with your finger about 1 knuckle deep. Cover the seed with just enough soil to level the top soil.
Next day you will spray the top of the soil of the planter down with your spray bottle making sure to get enough water on the soil that it should last the day or longer. Now I want you to check the soil 2 times daily, just in case you need to re-water on dry days. You really need to keep on top of things the first few weeks of the plants life. I have ruined some pretty great seeds by not paying attention to this detail on hot days. Learn from my mistake.
Be sure to water from the bottom every other day or so to maintain the soils moisture.
Once the plant is about 6 inches or taller, you can directly water the plant and not worry too much about flooding out your plant and washing it out of its space or burying it.
Once this sprout is about 8-12 inches it is ready to transplant to a larger pot. These small sprouting pots are not going to work for the plant beyond this point. If kept in this small pot much longer, your plant will be artificially dwarfed and have issues.

How wet is too wet?
When you grab a handful of the soil and squeeze it, it shouldn't drip unless you squeeze as hard as you can. With a modest squeeze the soil will not drip, with a heavy squeeze a few drops come out. This is ideal seed sprouting wetness. When you are growing established plants the soil should be just a hair dryer and not drip but maybe one drop when squeezed as hard as possible. It should leave the hand moist but not wet. This is a general rule, it is ok to give your plants a good soaking when you water them. Just be sure that you have good drainage so that excess water leaves the soil.